To tax (from the Latin taxo; "I estimate") is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many administrative divisions. Taxes consist of direct tax or indirect tax, and may be paid in money or as its labour equivalent (often but not always unpaid labour).
A tax is a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government a payment exacted by legislative authority." A tax "is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority" and is "any contribution imposed by government whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name."
Read more about Tax: Overview, Purposes and Effects, Kinds of Taxes, History, Economic Effects
Other articles related to "tax":
... included education reform, environmental protection, tax relief, road building, economic development, public safety, and tougher law enforcement ... his first term came in 1998 when he become the first Governor in 50 years to achieve a tax cut in the state’s income tax ... This combined with reduction in the sales tax, estate tax, and unemployment tax formed the largest tax break in the state’s history until that point ...
... Main article Optimal tax Most governments take revenue which exceeds that which can be provided by non-distortionary taxes or through taxes which give a double dividend ... elasticity of supply and demand for a good, it follows that putting the highest tax rates on the goods for which there is most inelastic supply and demand will result in the least overall deadweight costs ... Some economists sought to integrate optimal tax theory with the social welfare function, which is the economic expression of the idea that equality is valuable to a greater or lesser extent ...
... O'Daniel's campaign hailed his flour and the need for pensions and tax cuts ... He promised to block a sales tax and raise pensions ... In office, he proposed a new sales tax, which was voted down by the Texas Legislature ...
... an American investigative journalist and author, a specialist in economics and tax issues, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting ... he has been a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer who teaches the tax, property and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and Whitman ...
... Finance Finance and Management Financial Reporting Financial Services Information Technology Tax The Tax Faculty was the first to be formed in 1990 The monthly TAXline publication started in 1991, and an annual ... The Tax Faculty joined the Confédération Fiscale Européenne (CFE) in 2001 ...
Famous quotes containing the word tax:
“If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
I tax you not, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, called you children.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)